It's Official: EA Buys Pet Society Maker, Playfish

It's official: Electronic Arts (the video game company behind The Sims and Madden) has purchased social game maker, Playfish, for $300 million in cash and stock. Rumors that the two companies were getting together were making the rounds back on October 14.

The London-based social gaming company, best known for Restaurant City and Pet Society, runs games on several major social networks including Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

While there's no immediate word on how either company will change, EA already has a stable of social and casual games under its Pogo.com site and EA Play brand (which includes a major deal with leading toymaker, Hasbro).

Through a press release, issued on the Playfish site, "Playfish will operate within EA Interactive, a division of EA focused on the web and on wireless." That division includes EA Mobile and casual gaming powerhouse Pogo. It's unknown if EA Play is also a part of the same group, which might be interesting for social gamers since it has a long-term deal with toy-maker Hasbro (which includes Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf).